The success of small businesses in America reflects the innovation,
determination, and hard work of the American people. During Small
Business Week, we celebrate the entrepreneurs and business people who
create goods, services, and jobs, and bring opportunity and economic
prosperity to communities throughout our country. We also reaffirm our
commitment to helping more small business owners and their employees
realize the American Dream.

Small businesses create the majority of new jobs in our Nation and
account for more than half of the output of our economy. They lead the
way in generating new ideas and creating new technologies, goods, and
services for our country and for the world.

Small businesses also reflect the diversity of America. Nearly 40
percent of small companies in the United States are owned by women.
There are also more than 3 million minority-owned small businesses
across the country.

Because small businesses are vital to our Nation's prosperity and
reflect the hard work of the American people, my Administration has
taken important steps to assist small businesses and the people they
employ. We have reduced taxes, encouraged investment, and removed
obstacles to growth. The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act
of 2003 I signed into law will provide 23 million small business owners
with tax cuts averaging more than $2,200 each. The Act also quadrupled
the amount that small businesses can expense for new capital
investments, encouraging new investment in technology, machinery, and
other equipment. This new technology and equipment will increase
productivity and create new jobs, thereby contributing to the overall
strength of our economy.

We are also seeking to permanently eliminate the death tax. With
the repeal of this tax, small business men and women will be able to
pass their life's work to the next generation without having to pay a
punitive tax that in many cases forces the sale of the business or many
of its assets. And I support legislation that would make it easier for
small businesses to offer health coverage options to their employees.
Through Association Health Plans, small businesses could pool together
to offer group plans to all of their employees, like those available to
large businesses. In addition, we are working to streamline small
business regulations and paperwork. To this end, I issued an Executive
Order that requires all Federal regulatory agencies to minimize these
burdens on our Nation's small businesses.

The Small Business Administration (SBA), which helps American
innovators and risk-takers launch and build their businesses,
celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. By helping small businesses
succeed, the SBA continues to strengthen America.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States
of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution
and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 14 through
September 20, 2003, as Small Business Week. I call upon all the people
of the United States to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies,
activities, and programs that celebrate the achievements of small
business owners and their employees and encourage and foster the
development of new small businesses.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of
September, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and
twenty-eighth.